New Memories
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Living in the past was in Kallen’s DNA, but Kallen discovers that sometimes the present can be just as good as the past if it’s with the right person. Gino/Kallen.


**Title:** New Memories

**Synopsis:** Living in the past was in Kallen's DNA, but Kallen discovers that sometimes the present can be just as good as the past if it's with the right person.

**Rating: **K+

**A/N**: I love this pairing so much, and it seems to be the only one I can write in this fandom. Oh well. I hope everyone enjoys this, and a click on the review button would be much appreciated!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Geass, because if I did there would have been a lot more Gino screen time.

--

There seemed to be no place where she could escape from the memories of him. Little traces of him seemed to be everywhere.

This was the classroom where she had first noticed him.

That was the hallway where he would take her aside to talk about Student Council matters.

Over there was the bench where they had eaten lunch together.

Oddly enough, it was the small things that stood out. It had been the same with her brother when he had died. The daily things. Small jokes, the casual touch of the hand, or the piece of pizza that he had shared with her. Nothing huge or earth shattering, but those were the things that made him human and memorable.

Lelouch may have been Zero, but before he was that he had been Lelouch.

Not surprisingly, Kallen found herself attracted to these spots. The places that bore his mark and seemed to be burned into her memory. She felt as if she could just find a piece of him, grabbed some sort of memory; he'd seem a little less… dead. Holding onto the past was something that Kallen didn't want to do. Her mother had held onto the past and had gotten hooked on Refrain, an addiction that she wasn't totally over even now. But Kallen thought that if she could just try a little harder to remember him and to make sure that the _memories_ didn't die then maybe he could just…

"Do you have room for another person?" Kallen looked up, started by the sudden intrusion to her inner dialogue. Blonde hair, blue eyes like the fountain in front of them and a smile bigger than his face. It was, without a doubt, Gino Weinberg.

Somehow Kallen was so started by him that she had an affirmative response to him. And somehow that meant that Gino would be joining her for lunch. Not that Kallen disliked Gino; it was just that… He wasn't who she wanted to be with. He wasn't Lelouch. Not that it mattered much anyway; Lelouch was dead. But Kallen still found Gino to be more than occasionally irritating. Then again, she had never really gotten to know him. She hadn't really gotten to know anyone lately. All of her focus had been on the past, had been on Lelouch…

"You know, I was really excited when I found out you were coming back to Ashford." Kallen didn't focus on what he was saying; everything was just worthless words that would take up needed space in her mind. Each moment with Gino, with anyone, was a new memory, and with the new she would lose the old. This bench was supposed to have been her and Lelouch's place. Having Gino was there counterproductive. It would just erase the time that she had spent with Lelouch until there was none left and when that happened Kallen wouldn't know what to… "Kallen, are you alright?" Gino asked, his smile fading into a look of concern. The tears on Kallen's cheeks hadn't felt like anything until that moment. They had fallen unnoticed.

Embarrassed, Kallen wasn't quite sure what to say. Denial was possible. It could have been an allergic reaction or the sun in her eyes. Though Gino was smart, and would probably realize that it wasn't either of these things considering the fact that it was after allergy season and cloudy out. The truth was also an option, but it wasn't something that Kallen was ready to willingly admit. Crying over a boy who never kissed her back? How terribly cliché.

Suddenly, what she should say came to her as if it were in a dream. "I'm worried. That's all." Perfect. It was vague enough to not get into any sort of specifics, but yet enough information to keep him from prying if he had any decency. And Gino was a knight, he wouldn't pry into matters that didn't concern him like that. She'd just receive a pat on the back, a word of reassurance and a quick change of subject. It was a perfect plan.

"Oh my god Kallen." Gino said, the color draining from his face. "Are you… late?"

"WHAT?!" Kallen screamed as she abruptly stood up, attracting attention from more than one easygoing park guest. She smiled, embarrassed and apologetic, and sat back down hesitantly. "No, I am _not_. I don't do… _crap_ like that!" She hissed as she crossed her legs and looked up indignantly. Offended as she was by Gino's proposal, she had to admit that it had been slightly funny. But she would sooner die before letting him see the quiver in her lip from laughter.

There was a snicker being emitted from the mouth of the person next to her. Kallen was about to shout at him again when a voice was added to the laughter. "Good God, I knew that, but I didn't think that you would react_ that_ way!" A scowl continued to form on Kallen's face. "Sorry," He said, then added a pause as his laughter stopped, though his tone was still playful. "I just knew that would stop you from crying."

She looked at him for a moment, her mouth agape. The truth was, she _had_ stopped crying. And she hadn't even noticed it. "Yeah, I guess I did stop." The words were soft and told to the ground, but Kallen could feel the smile on Gino's face next to her. It was reassuring, in a way.

"So what are you worried about?" Gino said as he took out his lunch. It looked homemade and smelled pretty good. Kallen found herself wondering if Gino was a good cook. "You've seemed pretty worked up since you got back to Ashford."

This was not a conversation that Kallen wanted to have. To tell someone about her feelings for Lelouch and to admit that all she could focus on was the fact that he was _dead_ and that he wasn't coming back? That was crazy. Almost suicidal. People would just laugh. They would ask her about how she could love a murderer and why she couldn't just move on. It was a subject that she didn't want to discuss.

"Things are just changing. Nothing's really the same." The decision to say anything at all was difficult, and she hoped that these words would be enough to make him leave her alone.

Of course, she was wrong, as she tended to be when it came to Gino. He seemed to know no bounds when it came to conversation. "Is that all?" He held out his fork and a plastic container that held some kind of pasta concoction within it. His lunch. His eyes wandered over to hers, which were eyeing his linguini. "Want some? It's lunchtime and you're not eating anything."

The truth was that Kallen wasn't eating much of anything lately. Just didn't feel like it. But the pasta looked pretty damn good, and she did feel her empty stomach grumbling inside of her. With hesitation, she grabbed the fork from Gino. He just continued smiling like the idiot he was. Somehow, Kallen was getting used to that idiocy, and she had to admit that his smile was relatively charming. Repulsive, but charming.

"You know, you shouldn't really be worried about change. It's inevitable. You just have to let go of the past and realize that the future is coming whether you're ready or not and you should just let it happen. It's all you can do."

Silence.

"Kallen?"

Silence.

"Are you alright?"

Silence.

"Is the pasta that bad?" Gino asked, his eyes full of more concern than they were before. A burst of laughter found its way out of Kallen's lips this time. There was no way she could have possibly held it in this time.

After a moment of catching her breath Kallen spoke, though her words were fragmented with the remnants of her chuckles. "No, no. The food is… It's great… It's just that what you said…" Suddenly the laughs were gone and Kallen's eyes turned from joyous to serious again. With hesitation she looked over at Gino who wasn't doing anything; he was just looking at her seeming as if he… he _wanted_ to hear what she said. It wasn't a reaction that she was usually used to, and it caught her off guard. Consequently she blurted out her thoughts. "It was really smart. Not what I expected from you." With a blush creeping up her face she looked down at the container of pasta in her hands. The noodles were colorful, green and orange, not just the plain beige that she was used to. It was unexpected.

Sort of like Gino.

Instead of the angry remarks that she would have gotten from someone like Lelouch for that statement, Gino just started to laugh. It was such a pleasant sound; there was nothing behind it. No double meaning, no ill intensions, and no guilt hidden within it. Hearing it brought back memories of her brother and the times that they used to share before he had died. Part of Kallen had forgotten what it was like to enjoy her time with someone like this.

"Yeah, I guess I'm no philosopher." He said, still chuckling. His happy eyes met Kallen's, and she couldn't help but to smile along with him. After a moment the laughter dissolved and it was just the two of them looking at each other like any two boys and girls. No one around them would have ever thought that they had been part of the world changing events that they had been in.

No one would have guessed that the girl was attempting to live in the past with a man who had never loved her back.

No one would have guessed that the boy wanted nothing more in the world to bring her to the present with him, because if she didn't he didn't know what he would do.

"Do you want to get some ice cream Kallen?" He asked her, the smile fading just a bit with a nervousness that Kallen couldn't quite decipher.

Her own smile faded just a bit and she looked just a bit past him with contemplation. Ice cream with Gino? What would that mean? And if she did decide to go, what would it do to her mind? And would he expect more and would she forget Lelouch and would…

She looked back at Gino with his light eyes and hopeful expression and suddenly the 'what if' situations could wait until later.

She nodded and the two of them stood up and began walking away from that bench. The bench that wasn't Lelouch's anymore; the bench that had somehow become Gino's in one afternoon.

--

_Fin_


End file.
